Teaching Reading:

The importance of welcoming students. Reading a story about the first day of school, for example, or a poem by Shel Silverstein, Come In.
“If you are a dreamer,come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!”

Strategies for reading:

• Background knowledge, what do you already know about the topic?
• Connections:
  • Text to self connection--makes you think of something in your life
  • Text to text connection--reminds you of another book by author or different author
  • Text to world connection--sports, economy, etc.
• Questions
• Inferences
• Visualizations---using guided imagery, drawing to visualize the characters, settings
• Summarizing---summing up, what is it all about
• Synthesizing---how has understanding of topic deepened with new information? from initial thoughts
• Determining importance---what is important to you, to the author?
• Fix-up strategies---what did you do if you got off track? did not understand? unfamiliar words?

Class notes 6/25

5 Components of Reading

1. Phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, identify and manipulate (segment, blend, delete, substitute) the individual phonemes or speech sounds in words. Introducing the sounds--> based on what you hear, sometimes in conjunction with the letter. Individual sounds
   • didn't historically happen in elementary schools
   • closely related to reading success
2. Phonics - understanding the rules that govern how letters or letter combinations match individual sounds
   • more emphasis today on phonics and literature, teaching children the rules of phonics
3. Comprehension - the ability to make sense of the literal and non-literal meaning in text
4. Vocabulary - understanding the meanings of words that are encountered in texts and in conversation
   • receptive vocabulary -- words that you understand but can't necessarily vocalize (you would not use it in speech)
   • expressive vocabulary -- words that are in your personal dictionary
   • highly correlated with comprehension
   • takes longer to learn academic language than social language
5. Fluency - the ability to read written text out loud accurately at an appropriate pace, with good phrasing, attention to punctuation, and expressiveness
   • phonics, vocabulary and phonemic awareness all serve as a base for fluency
   • 1st grade - 40 words per minute, 2nd grade - 90 words per minute (DIBELS standards)

Best practices in literacy

Lower grades: K-2

• Environmental print (print-rich classroom, lots of literacy props, labels, play with letters, print in natural environment)
• read aloud (you are modeling fluency, expressive language, access to text at a higher level, 1-2 levels above, making predictions, modeling comprehension, asking questions, addressing vocabulary, create shared experiences)
• shared reading (teacher and students read together, teacher scaffolding children, repeated readings, gives students additional reading)
• guided reading (small group instructional reading, based on appropriate reading level, provide instruction, based on work they need, done 3-5 times/week)
• independent reading (90% accuracy, they can choose from reading)
• partner reading (learn how to give feedback to one another, use same vocabulary like, "look at the picture to help you")
• word study (phonics and vocabulary)
• shared writing (projects, etc)
• interactive writing (teacher guided joint writing project)
• independent writing (writers' workshop, students decide what to write about, personal narratives)

Upper grades: 3-5

• read aloud (you are modeling fluency, expressive language, access to text at a higher level, 1-2 levels above, making predictions, modeling comprehension, asking questions, addressing vocabulary, create shared experiences)
• shared reading (teacher and students read together, teacher scaffolding children, repeated readings, gives students additional reading)
• guided reading (small group instructional reading, based on appropriate reading level, provide instruction, based on work they need, done 3-5 times/week)
• independent reading (90% accuracy, they can choose from reading)
• partner reading (learn how to give feedback to one another, use same vocabulary like, "look at the picture to help you")
• word study (phonics and vocabulary)
• shared writing (projects, etc)
• independent writing (writers' workshop, students decide what to write about, personal narratives)
• writers' workshop (joint writing projects)
• readers' response (individual writing, critical thinking, responding to questions)
• literature circles/studies (discussions)

Benchmarks

1. Kindergarten
   1. speaking and listening - understand oral directions, follow rules for discussion, speak using complete sentences, retell/dramatize children's literature
   2. vocabulary development - build sight words, build content area vocabulary, identify and sort words
   3. writing - draw and label, organize sentences, write and dictate personal experience story
   4. reading/literature - use letters/sounds to identify words, make predictions, use prior knowledge to understand text, recognize rhythm and rhyme
2. First grade
   1. speaking and listening - understanding oral directions, follow rules for discussion, speak using complete sentences, retell/dramatize children's literature, increase attention span, respond to speaker by asking questions
   2. vocabulary development - build sight words, content area, vocabulary, identify and sort sight words
   3. writing - draw and label, organize sentences, write and dictate personal experience story
   4. reading/literature - use letters/sounds to identify words, make predictions, use prior knowledge to understand text, recognize rhyme and rhythm
3. Second grade
   1. speaking and listening - increase attention span, respond to speaker by asking questions, recognize listening as source of information, identify main idea of speaker's message, share retellings, elaborate and use details
   2. vocabulary development - build sight words, build/extend content area, vocabulary, identify/sort words, understand multiple meanings of words
   3. writing - organize information using graphic organizers, write/dictate personal stories, use simple descriptive words, organize written information
   4. reading/literature - reading/literature, make meaningful predictions, use prior knowledge to understand text, monitor for meaning, make connections and inferences, begin to understand non-fiction text/features
4. Third grade
   1. speaking and listening - develop listening set (expect meaning, keep quiet, ignore distractions and widen interest), obtain/recall main ideas/essential information, respond/contribute, participate in discussions of familiar topics, elaborate, use details
   2. vocabulary development - build/extend content area vocabulary, identify/categorize/sort words, understand multiple meanings
   3. writing - organize information logically (narrative/expository), increase focus/production, brief summaries, simple biographies, reader response
   4. reading/literature - make predictions, use prior knowledge to understand text, monitor for meaning & reflect on thinking and learning, make connections/ask questions/make inferences, summarize story elements, understand non-fiction text/features
5. Fourth grade
   1. speaking and listening - develop listening set: expect meaning, keep quiet, ignore distractions, widen interest; retain essential information, respond to others' thoughts, group discussions through questions, contributing, make organized oral presentations
   2. vocabulary development - build/extend content vocabulary; categorize words, understand multiple meanings, use dictionary & thesaurus to increase vocabulary
   3. writing - organize information logically, increase focus/production, summaries, biographies, informational reports, anticipate questions
   4. reading/literature - use prior knowledge, determine importance, use sensory images, make inferences on a wide variety of genres

Oral language

Why we speak:

• communicate - Some people are better at oral communication, some are stronger with written communication
• make needs known, express emotions
• interact, socialize, relate to one another
• manifest ideas/think, questions
• relieve stress, pleasure, to entertain
• share information

Oral language development:

• vocabulary
• intonation
• grammar syntax
• semantics
• pragmatics
• pausing
• reasons for speaking
• sounds of the language

Class Notes 6/29

Phonological awareness

• Specific skills:
• word awareness (awareness of natural pauses in sentences)
• rhyming (reception and production)
• syllable (blending, segment, manipulate)
• Onset & rime
  • onset = the first sound/s up to the vowel, Ex. Fr+og, Fr = onset, Cl+ock, Cl = onset
  • rime = parts of words that are spelled the same and pronounced the same, Ex. "ame" from tame, same, lame, game
• Instructional strategies:
  • direct instruction for concepts
  • poems/songs
  • books
  • sorts
  • games

Phonemic awareness

• Specific skills:
• isolate sounds (dipthongs are one sound, like "oy" in boy
• isolate and identify sounds
• blend sounds
• add sounds (1st grade)
• delete sounds (1st grade)
• substitute sounds (1st grade)
• segment sounds: using Elkonin boxes: have them push a colored piece into a box for every sound
• Instructional strategies
  • sound matching, isolating, blending, adding, segmenting, manipulating
  • Games
  • Sorts
  • Books
• Phonological awareness games:
  • What skills are being practiced throughout the game?
  • Which grade levels would it be used for?
  • What might be challenging for the students?
  • Can they play independently, or does the teacher need to be present?
  • Can skills be differentiated based on who is playing?

Concepts about print (CAP)

1. print carries meaning
   • the printed word carries the meaning
2. directionality
   • English is read left to right
3. tracking
   • one-on-one match: spaces in between words represents white spaces on pages
   • where to go next, return sweep--at end of line, go to next line beginning
4. Distinguish between letters/words/sentences
   • see spaces, see changes to word order, sentence order, distinguish between visually similar words (ex. 'on' & 'no'
   • identify a capital letter, identify 1 or 2 letters, first letter in a word, last letter in a word
5. identify punctuation
   • know what meaning they carry, "talking marks" e.g.
6. book orientation

Video: Kindergarten class observations on what the teacher did for helping the children with CAP:

• spaces between letters
• punctuation, such as question marks
• tracking words one by one, with pointer

Class Notes 7/1

Alphabetic Principle:

• Awareness that specific phonemes/sounds are represented by specific graphemes/letters
• How to assess it: Dictation exercises
  • Look for spaces in writing
  • Check to see if they are listening for the word, tapping out the sounds
• How to teach it:
  • Children's names on a name board in alphabetical order
  • Favorite things
  • Alphabet songs, point to letters, naming letters, fluency in letters
  • Practice writing uppercase and lowercase letters
    • Letter cards: upper and lowercase letters, with key word, ex. Dd, dog (picture)
    • Sound cards: consonant digraph: sh, ship (picture of a ship); word families
  • Tactile/hands-on methods
    • Sandpaper letters, letters with grainy feel so children can trace the letters
• Difficulties:
  • certain letter mixups, b & d
  • letter name knowledge
  • LMNOP not one letter
• Stages of Word Learning (Page 18 in Fox)

Direct phonics teaching

• Taught at the end of K, into 1st and 2nd:
• Sight words: words you have to memorize based on how they look, and not by how they sound (the, have, what)
• High-frequency words: words children should know at a quick glance (am, have, see, what)
  • hi-freq sight words can be taught using visual skills, by extending arm straight out (no bent elbow) and writing the letters with your fingers and say the spelling and word, w-h-o, "who"
  • "popcorn" words (hi-freq words), because they're always "popping up," children can go through and highlight (or "butter") the words in text
  • Sight words and hi-freq words in packet (sight word hunt/hi-freq words)
  • Children with weak visual memories may have a harder time with reading/memorizing sight words
• Consonants: made with teeth, tongue, lips and air, can't stand alone in word
  • some with one-to-one: 'T' represents one phoneme
  • some that borrow phonemes: 'X' borrows from k+s, C can be k or s, Q is k+w
  • Hard and soft sounds of C and G: teach children that they have to read the next letter to know how to read the C or G
  • Q: always comes with its friend U, makes a digraph KW
  • Y gets jealous of vowels and becomes one; I in one-syllable words: try, fry, cry, EE in two syllable words: happy, baby
  • teach children to clip their sounds--only say the sound, like "mmmm" not "muh"
  • Digraphs:
    • H brothers: SH, TH, CH, WH
    • QU, PH, GH, etc.
• Vowels: your jaw drops and mouth hangs open
  • vowels give volume to words
  • every word must have a vowel
• Syllable type:
  • CV, open; go, try, she, so (vowel sounds says its name)
  • CVC, closed; car, shut, grab (short vowel sound)
  • CVC+e, the magic e jumps over the consonant and tells the vowel to say its name, non-voiced 'e'
  • CVVC, vowel team, "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking," only voice the first vowel, recognize where it is in the word, different vowel combinations
  • CV+r, "bossy R" it takes the sound of the previous vowel, R controlled, either say the name of R, or "errrr"
  • C+le: pronounced "uhhl"
  • C can connote combinations of consonants, like try, shrimp
  • CVC+CVC taught in K-2, other syllable types taught in 3-6
• Dipthongs, teach in second grade
  • vowels together do not follow pattern: OI, OY, AU, OW, OU, AW
• R controlled sounds: er, ar, ir, ur, or
• Word families: picture a house with clouds drawn above, all the words in a word family can go in the house, nonsense words in cloud
  • add sounds to the beginning and end
  • Using quotable/contrived texts--texts used for on specific purpose, like teaching the short O
• Assessment:
  • nonsense word assessment: list of non-sight words so they are using their phonics skills (second grade)
• Structural analysis: (in packet)
  • prefixes
  • suffixes, helps them phonetically to separate the suffix from the base word, ex. lot-->lots; without separation they may transpose the letters ("lost")
  • base words
  • greek and latin root words: help understand meaning, like aqua-
  • compound words, helps with related words
  • contractions, some are learned sooner, as sight words or hi-freq words, others are learned later
• Rules for syllabication: efficient ways to be reading
  • P/R/S separate into meaningful chunks
    • preheat, -pre to see "heat"
    • expanding, ex+pand+ing
  • VC/CV, scoop between two consonants to break up the word, mas/ter, but/ter
  • V/CV, long vowel pattern, break after the long vowel, sea/son, when there is an open syllable
  • VC/V, short vowel pattern, break after the closed syllable

Class Notes 7/2

Phonics notations:
sh/r/i/m/p -- digraph blend: sh/r
ch/R/ch -- R for the controlled r

Guided Reading

Guided Reading is a teaching approach designed to help individual students learn how to process a variety of increasingly challenging texts with fluency.

1. Book selection: 90-95% reading accuracy, not too much difficulty so they cannot hold onto the meaning of the text, related to content, expose children to many genres of literacy
2. Introducing the text: mini-lesson, introducing new sight words, picture walk, go through the book and try to figure out what the text is about, starting questions to get them engaged. Introduce some of the text that may be hard for the children: like different ways of saying things. Ex. "Home we go"
3. Reading (monitor and guide): whisper reading to silent reading, everybody reads the entire book. Higher levels might be reading a chapter. "Tapping in" is a way for the teacher to tell the child she will listen for pronunciation, stopping and punctuation
4. Discussing and reviewing the text: noticing for difficult words
5. Teaching for processing strategies: using examples from the book to reinforce lessons
6. Extending the meaning of the text: Story maps
7. Word work: sight words, lesson

Literacy activities: activity centers increase over time

Building an effective reading process over time:

Emergent readers (levels A-B, texts: simple stories with 1-2 lines)

• become aware of print
• read orally, matching word by word
• use meaning and language in simple text
• hear sounds in words
• recognize name and some letters
• use information from pictures
• connect words with names
• notice and use spaces between words
• read orally
• match one spoken word to one printed word while reading 1-2 lines of text
• use spaces and some visual infrmation to check on reading
• know name of some alphabet letters
• know some letter-sound relationships
• read left to right
• recognize a few high frequency words

Early Readers (levels B-H, texts: longer books with high frequency words and supportive illustrations)

• know names of most letters and many letter-sound relationships
• use letter-sound info with meaning to solve words
• read without pointing
• read orally and begin to read silently
• read fluently with phrasing on easy texts, use the punctuation
• recognize most easy, high freq words
• check to make sure reading makes sense, sounds right, looks right
• check one source of information against another to solve problems
• use info from pics as added info while reading print

Self-extending readers (Levels M-R, grades 3-4; Texts: wide reading of a variety of long and short texts, variety of genre)

• Read silently; read fluently when reading aloud.
• Use all sources of information flexibly in a smooth orchestrated way.
• Sustain reading over texts with many pages, that require reading over several days or weeks.
• Enjoy illustrations and gain additional meaning from them as they interpret texts.
• Interpret and use information from a wide variety of visual aids in expository texts.
• Analyze words in flexible ways and make excellent attempts at new, multisyllable words.
• Have systems for learning more about the reading process as they read so that they build skills simply by encountering many different kinds of texts with a variety of new words.
• Are in a continuous process of building background knowledge and realize that they need to bring their knowledge to their reading.
• Become absorbed in books.
• Begin to identify with characters in books and see themselves in the events of the stories.
• Connect texts with previous texts read.

Advanced readers (Levels R-Y, grades 4-6; Texts: Wide reading of a variety of genre and for a variety of purposes.)

• Read silently; read fluently when reading aloud.
• Effectively use their understandings of how words work; employ a wide range of word solving strategies, including analogy to known words, root words, base words, and affixes.
• Acquire new vocabulary through reading.
• Use reading as a tool for learning in content areas.
• Constantly develop new strategies and new knowledge of texts as they encounter greater variety.
• Develop favorite topics and authors that form the basis of lifelong reading preferences.
• Actively work to connect texts for greater understanding and finer interpretations of texts.
• Consistently go beyond the text read to form their own interpretations and apply understandings in other areas.
• Sustain interest and understanding over long texts and read over extended periods of time.
• Notice and comment on aspects of the writer’s craft.
• Read to explore themselves as well as philosophical and social issues.

Foundation of Good Reader Strategies

"When we read, we use our eyes, ears and brains"

• Syntax: Does it sound right? Patterns of language and grammar (structure)
  • natural language
  • book language
  • english syntax
  • grammatical patterns and language structures
• Visual: Does it look right? Print on the page (visual) concepts about print
  • conventions of print
  • bolding, indenting, spacing
  • punctuation
  • syllables
  • rimes, chunks
  • letter/sound relationships
• Meaning: Does it make sense?
  • story structure
  • prior knowledge
  • connections to the world, other texts, personal experiences
  • illustrations
  • contextual information

Class notes 7/13

Vocabulary:

• Vocabulary focus at a young age a big predictor of phonemic awareness and reading success
• You need a comprehensive and integrated vocabulary
  • word rich environment
    • different types of books, different genres, playing around with words, hearing words
  • intentional teaching of words
    • asking children to generate their own words
    • integrating: using words in different contexts
  • developing word learning vocabulary
    • morphology/structure
    • context is important, but you can't rely alone on context
    • students should know when to seek outside sources (thesaurus, teacher)
• what words to teach (sight and hi freq words)
• who should choose the words
  • don't rely on incidental word learning
  • scaffolding and dialogue
• English language learners: using words related to their own language, frequent words
• Technology can help, but with adult guidance
• Kinetic, purposeful vocabulary teaching

Fluency: "freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension"

• Ehri's 4 stages:
  • pre-alphabetic
  • partial alphabetic
  • fully alphabetic
  • consolidated alphabetic
• "Read, read, read" plus instruction/guidance
• Four dimensions of fluency:
  • accuracy
  • rate
  • quality
  • comprehension
• Reading with divided attention: you should be thinking about the decoding and comprehension, not focusing narrowly on one aspect
• Students also shouldn't be focusing too narrowly on one aspect of reading
• Students should be aware of how they sound when they are fluent (spoken speech), and use this for self monitoring

Comprehension: a process, not a product. Students continually building on the reading

• Good readers read actively--preview text, use background knowledge, set goals for reading
• Effective comprehension strategies:
  • predictions
  • think aloud
  • understanding text structure
  • visual representations
  • summarization
  • questioning
• Comprehension Instruction
  • balanced instruction: explicit instruction and time for reading and discussing, and writing
• Classroom context
  • real texts for real reasons
  • a range of genres
  • vocab-rich environment
  • writing texts for readers
  • high quality talk about text
• Explicit Instruction
  • reciprocal teaching
  • questioning the author
  • well-suited texts
  • ongoing assessment

From packet: Reading comprehension instructional activities: gradual release with all skills (vocab and fluency as well)

The structure of non-fiction:

1. description
2. sequence
3. question/answer
4. compare/contrast
5. cause/effect
6. problem/solution

Graphic organizer: flow chart, web, 5 W's, etc